Singapore-based STACS, a company specialising in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data and technology solutions, has unveiled significant enhancements to its ESGpedia platform.

These upgrades aim to provide digital tools that support businesses and financial institutions in adhering to the ever-growing ESG regulatory requirements in Europe and Asia.

The scarcity of ESG data, especially within the Asia-Pacific region, has posed a challenge for financial institutions and large corporations. In response to this, STACS, on November 2, introduced innovative features to bridge the ESG data gaps in the Asia Pacific. ESGpedia has fortified its AI-driven capabilities, offering a dual approach through its Nexus and Intelligence functions.

The ESGpedia Nexus is designed to cater to companies with varying levels of ESG maturity, assisting them in achieving their comprehensive business requirements through active engagement and its marketplace of sustainability solutions.

To simplify the path to sustainability, companies can establish their ESG profile effortlessly, complete with ESG metrics that can be scaled to support international assessments and standards reporting.

Additionally, it provides digital tools that automatically translate operational data, such as fuel, refrigerant, and electricity consumption, into greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, customised for all Asia-Pacific nations. ESGpedia Nexus also offers a marketplace where companies can showcase their ESG profiles and access or provide ESG services.

Meanwhile, ESGpedia Intelligence offers a comprehensive view by consolidating ESG data from various countries and sectors through AI-powered harmonisation of unstructured ESG data.

STACS initially introduced ESGpedia version 2.0 in May, featuring a dataset of five million sustainability data points. Since then, the platform has bolstered its AI capabilities for aggregating, harmonising, and standardising ESG data. ESGpedia's data coverage now spans over 3,00,000 companies, with 1,15,000 company profiles fully enriched and standardised.

Local bank OCBC is among the users of ESGpedia, having partnered with the platform to launch the ESCAP Sustainable Business Network (ESBN) Asia-Pacific Green Deal for Businesses digital programme in May.

This programme offers a self-assessment tool to reduce entry barriers for both corporates and SMEs. Through data collected on ESGpedia via the ESBN Asia-Pacific Green Deal digital assessment and independently verified by Bureau Veritas, OCBC successfully extended a sustainability-linked loan (SLL) to the global textile and apparel manufacturer Ghim Li.

The platform automates the calculation of emissions and data verification, recording the sustainability performance targets of the SLL for monitoring purposes. This streamlined process is expected to make it more efficient for banks to extend SLLs to businesses, ultimately simplifying the process and encouraging more companies to embark on their sustainability journey.

ESGpedia also offers Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) and carbon credits through its marketplace, enabling companies to offset their Scope 2 carbon emissions resulting from electricity usage. STACS has revealed that Bamboo Capital, an impact investing platform based in Luxembourg, will use ESGpedia to enhance transparency in the RECs lifecycle and prevent double-trading.

With the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) set to directly impact more than 50,000 European Union (EU) companies and 10,000 non-EU companies from 2024, and several Asian markets enforcing mandatory regulatory reporting to align with global sustainability and ESG standards, companies are experiencing a growing need to comply with evolving ESG regulations in Europe and Asia.

Benjamin Soh, the founder and managing director of STACS, emphasises that companies in the ASEAN region are encountering increasingly stringent mandatory ESG requirements, which now extend to large non-listed companies and SMEs.

To meet these evolving ESG regulations, he emphasises the importance of understanding one's current ESG profile and leveraging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence. Soh expresses his enthusiasm about how ESGpedia's latest platform enhancements, featuring ESGpedia Nexus and Intelligence, are assisting financial institutions and companies across ASEAN in achieving their ESG objectives and addressing ESG data gaps in the Asia Pacific region.

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Source: The Edge Singapore